Judge Nixes Some Infringement Claims V. Applera

Law360, New York (August 22, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT) -- In a boost for a unit of gene equipment manufacturer Applera Corp., a federal judge has found that Applied Biosystems Group did not infringe two DNA sequencing patents assigned to Illumina Inc.’s subsidiary Solexa Inc.

However, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Friday that the court did not have enough information to grant summary judgment of noninfringement regarding a third, related patent.

The dispute involves three patents covering methods of learning unknown sequences in DNA.